Romeu Oliveira Ribeiro (born 13 January 1989) is a Portuguese former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

Club career

Born in

Vieira do Minho Vieira do Minho () is a municipality in the district of Braga, in the north of Portugal. The population in 2011 was 12,997, in an area of 216.44 km2. The present mayor is António Cardoso, elected by a coalition between PSD and the CDS–PP ...

Braga District The district of Braga ( ) is a district in the northwest of Portugal. The district capital is the city of Braga, and it is bordered by the district of Viana do Castelo in the north, Vila Real in the east, Galicia (a Spanish autonomous commu ...

, Ribeiro began his youth career with local

S.C. Braga Sporting Clube de Braga (), commonly known as Sporting de Braga or just Braga, is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Braga. Best known for the men's professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese foo ...

, being acquired by

S.L. Benfica (), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football. Founded on 28 February 1904, as ''Sport Lisboa'', Benfica is one of the " ...

in 2004. Like

Miguel Vítor Miguel Ângelo Leonardo Vítor (; born 30 June 1989) is a professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Israeli Premier League club Hapoel Be'er Sheva, where he is also captain, and for the Israel national team. He spent most of his ...

, he first played with the main squad due to injuries to teammates, making his debut in the

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

and European competition in exactly the same matches that Vítor, in August 2007. However, in January 2008, both players were loaned to

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

side C.D. Aves. In August, the loan period was extended until June of the following year. In July 2009, Ribeiro would be once again loaned, joining C.D. Trofense as it had just been relegated back to the second tier. In the following year, in the same situation, he signed for top-flight club

C.S. Marítimo Club Sport Marítimo MH M (), commonly known as Marítimo or Marítimo da Madeira, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in the city of Funchal, on the island of Madeira. Established in 1910, Marítimo is best known for its football team ...

. Ribeiro moved to Marítimo on a permanent basis in the summer of 2011, after his contract with Benfica expired. However, as manager Pedro Martins – and all his predecessors – preferred foreign players, especially Brazilians, he spent the vast majority of his three-year spell in

Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...

with the reserves, in divisions three and two. After being released on 30 June 2013, Ribeiro spent the vast majority of his career in the second division, the exception to this being the 2014–15 season in the main tier, with F.C. Penafiel (1,153 minutes of action, team relegation).

Personal life

Ribeiro's father was a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

, whilst his younger brother

Yuri Yuri may refer to: People Given name *Yuri (Slavic name), the Slavic masculine form of the given name George, including a list of people with the given name Yuri, Yury, etc. *Yuri (Japanese name), feminine Japanese given names, including a list o ...

also played for Benfica and Portugal at youth level.

Career statistics

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ribeiro, Romeu 1989 births Living people People from Vieira do Minho 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Braga District Men's association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players Campeonato de Portugal (league) players S.L. Benfica footballers C.D. Aves players C.D. Trofense players C.S. Marítimo players F.C. Penafiel players Académico de Viseu F.C. players Casa Pia A.C. players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's under-21 international footballers